Welcome to the SimRTK. If you haven’t played it before, you may want to read this thread to become a little more familiar with it. The SimRTK has been around for quite some time now, and has been refined over and over again during and after each game. The product is a smooth-running system in which players have many options, but at the same time can play a basic role.

You can expect to spend anywhere between 20 minutes every three days to hours each day, depending on how much you want to get involved. If time is a concern, avoid playing a ruler. If you want to get the full experience, however, play the role of a ruler and prepare yourself for a very interesting experience.

The storyline will be unique, and the vast majority of what happens will be determined by the players. Do you want to support the Han Dynasty? Do you want to usurp it and usher in a new era? It is up to you. You need not have a detailed knowledge of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to play, but it can enhance your experience.

To sign up, read all related rules in the Game Rules forum to understand the game. The first chapters are the most important as they tell you how to make a character and how to grow your character through experience. While the later chapters are important, you do not necessarily need to know how to duel or write battle tactics until you find yourself in those situations. As such, the first few chapters will answer almost all questions you may have. If you are confused after reading the rules, please post your questions to the gameplay questions thread. Make sure you read Chapter 1: Sign-Up & Character Creation. That will show you how to create a character. When you are ready to request your new officer, this includes knowing the year of birth and name (do not choose an historical officer name) you want, post in the sign-up thread in the Headquarters forum. Please note that you can only have one PC officer with stats, and only one account in this game (expect trouble if you break this rule). An staff member will reply with your roll. Finalize your character as explained in the sign-up rules, and finally post your completed officer back into the sign-up thread.

You now have a new officer. You may get letters from rulers asking you to join their kingdom. At this point explore the forum. Reading the Civilian Gossip Thread can give you snippets of news about what's been going on, or general rumors that may be of interest. Locate the role-play thread and OOC thread in the Role-Play Forum. You can post your officer stats in the Free Officers thread, which is found in the Headquarters. You can also go to roleplay threads for kingdoms and introduce yourself to a ruler you are interested in serving.

If you desire more personal help from what the Rules or of the Game Rules question thread gives, then you should contact the GMs. Their contact methods are available in the Headquarters Forum, and there are many listed possibilities. Furthermore, you can always drop by our IRC chat room, #simrtk @ irc.lunarnet.org in order to get help from hopefully friendly players.Introduction to Playing an OfficerAs an officer you can choose to play a major role in the game, or even the smallest role. You can post your Personal Turn in the headquarters thread to develop your officer while Personal Turns are open (see the rules on Personal Turns for more information). You will also perform services for your ruler in the Kingdom Turn, after you have joined a kingdom.

As an officer, make sure you choose your ruler well. Remember that if you serve a ruler that has a very large following of officers you will likely have a hard time getting noticed, and you may not enjoy it so much. If you want a wonderful game, consider serving an underdog.

The most important thing about your officer is how you play him or her. Not your stats, and not your skills. Even if your stats are all in the 50s or less, you can still do wonderful things in the Sim simply by using your own head. Don’t get too caught up in stats, and don’t get too caught up in items.

Also remember that there are no set rules for what you can do, and more importantly, what people can do to you. If you visit a ruler that ruler will be able to order his guards to take you prisoner, and can even execute you. You could try to escape, but you may find yourself fighting a room full of troops. On the same note, you can set up traps in the role-play thread in which you can entice another ruler or officer and kill him, or demand something in exchange for his life. You are limited only by your imagination and the GM's view on various matters. While plotting, make sure you work with a GM so you know they will not overrule your plot. This is how you can amount to great things, and the point at which the Sim becomes more than a console game.Introduction to Playing a RulerAs a ruler you are playing one of the leaders who is striving to unite China. You can do this in the name of the Han Dynasty, or even make your own dynasty. You can forge alliances with anyone you like, and make enemies of whoever you wish. Feel free to be evil in your actions, or perhaps even the newest SGYY Liu Bei.

You will be presented with an empty forum for interaction with everyone else, and another empty forum for secret planning with your officers. Military and civil structure is completely up to you, and it is also your duty to maintain the loyalty of your officers and the structure of your kingdom. You are strongly encouraged to come up with original ideas to win the hearts of your players.

Every couple of weeks (month in the game) you will have to post a turns thread, which will include all the actions in your kingdom. This can be difficult as time passes. Eventually, you will want to dedicate work to officer players under your command who are willing to post a city’s turn for you. When you do this you have effectively given control of a city to one of your men, and they can use this to do you a lot of damage, so make sure you only give this honor to trusted officers.

The officers of your kingdom are your lifeblood. Smart players with reputations are more valuable than their officer’s stats. They are the people who can prepare unique and wonderful strategies with which to defeat your enemies and expand your kingdom, and perhaps even see through your enemy's plots. Do not seek out allies with only stats in mind. A good loyal PC player with an average officer can be every bit as valuable as having an NPC officer like Cao Cao.

Also on that note, you do not have to have PC officers to survive in the game, although it will make it more difficult. You can hire NPC officers and manage your whole kingdom on your own. In the past, talented players have run successful kingdoms built entirely with NPC officers with only a few actual players. You are limited only by your dedication, ingenuity, and imagination.

When plotting remember only one thing. Just because a plot doesn’t appear in the rules does not mean you cannot do it. If you want to bribe someone (I am not going to give ideas) to help you in some great way, try to get in contact with that NPC through a GM. If you want to set up a trap for a PC, get in touch with a GM. The best strategist players in this game are the ones who are constantly thinking up new strategies that others have not anticipated.A short introduction to the Acronyms/Lingo of SimRTK

Entering into the world of Roleplay can be confusing, daunting and intimidating—or all three at once. This guide was written with the newbie in mind, to help him or her ease his way into the Roleplay world by tackling one of the more confusing aspects of roleplay: the acronyms!

RP = the most commonly used acronym, this is used to denote “roleplay”. Roleplay, by definition, is playing as a character who you have made up story for, and using that character to interact with other people’s characters. All RPs are done in-character, and by that, I mean that you would write out your character’s actions, not your actions (that is, unless you decide to play as yourself!).

IC = the second most commonly used acronym, tied with OOC (see below). Being in-character is when you roleplay as your character.

OOC = the second most commonly used acronym, tied with IC (see above). Being out-of-character is when you give personal comments to accompany your IC posts, or you post in the OOC forum. If this is used in tandem with roleplay, it is highly suggested that you put OOC commentary at the beginning or end of your posts, and that you put them in brackets (“[]”) or parentheses (“()”).

KMA = Kongming Archives. Run by Xian Zhu Xuande (the guy who also hosts SimRTK), it is a treasure trove of RTK knowledge. It can be accessed by accessing the Index of SimRTK and at the very top clicking on "KMA".

SimRTK = the game that you play. ^_^ It stands for “Simulated Romance of the Three Kingdoms”.

SoSZ = Scholars of Shen Zhou. A site that is used to debate various things, and can be found by going to SimRTK's Index and clicking on "SoSZ" at the very top.

IRC = Short for “Internet Relay Chat”, this is used to refer to the mIRC channel that SimRTK uses. That channel being #simrtk on the irc.phrenzy.org server. It is a chatroom used to both relax and plan between officers.

BRB = You’ll see this one on IRC often. It means, “I’ll be right back”.

AFK = Another one you’ll see in IRC. It means, “I’m Away from my keyboard”, and in other words, unable to type.

LOL = Yet another common IRC acronym. It means, “Laugh out loud”.

PWN = More IRC madness. This is used to denote when one has been completely, totally owned. Why the "P"?...don't even bother asking.

PT = Personal Turn. Actions that you take between the Military and Civil Phases of the game in order to help advance your character. For more information, please refer to Chapter 5 of the rules for more details.

KT = Kingdom Turn. These are the turns that move the game forward. They are used to develop a kingdom both civilly and militarily. For a further explanation, please refer to Chapter 3 of the rules…and don’t worry if you don’t understand most of it: it’s mainly for rulers to worry about. ^_^

AH = Audience Hall. This is where you go to roleplay and apply for service with a lord and his kingdom. You’ll know that you’ve been OOCly accepted once the person who has your audience asks you to post your Officer Information in their appropriate thread, and they will usually tell you flat out that you’ve joined their forces (e.g: “Zhu Dun has joined the forces of Fan Zhong! Please post your officer info in our thread and you’ll be granted PH access.”)

KRP = Kingdom Roleplay. The roleplay threads made especially for a kingdom. Go there to roleplay; you don’t even have to be from the same kingdom in order to do so!

PH = the Planning Hall. Every kingdom has one. It is a private (unless you have spies) place for people within the kingdom to view the progress of the kingdom, as well as roleplay with fellow officers and chat OOCly. You must be granted access by the kingdom ruler, first.

PKI = Public Kingdom Information. A list of information given to the public that is used to show how much gold, food, Prestige, and troops that a ruler has. It must be updated every turn, lest the ruler face Admin-administered penalties.

PR = Prestige. A very important stat, PR goes into calculating how NPCs respond to a ruler. The higher the PR, the easier it is to recruit NPCs.

CiC = Commander-in-Chief. This is the unit that acts as the leader for one side in battle. Destroying his unit will bring a huge drop in enemy morale.

Mongo = Not really an abbreviation, but it is what most people here refer to Admin Zhang Liao 27 as. Don't ask what it means; I'm still wondering that myself.

DR = Duel Runners. They run duels in the Public Dueling Thread in the Role-Play Forum.

RM = Roleplay Master. The Roleplay masters take care of roleplaying important NPCs, and are generally the lowest on the tier of staffers. Still important to maintaining the game, however.

GM = Game Master. Besides Administrators, Game Masters hold the most “power” on SimRTK (and many other RP sites). Game Masters have the job of Roleplay Masters, but they also must take care of the more mechanical parts of the game, such as running battles, duels in battles, running plots, etc.

PM = Private Message. A message sent using the PM system of the site. It allows you to send a message to another person, that only that person will see (that is, unless they show it to other people!).

Welcome to the SimRTK, and have a wonderful, original, and exciting new experience!